


a different kind of armor

by BabyGenius



Category: Chronicles of Narnia - All Media Types, Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Genre: Character Study, Gen, The Problem of Susan, and i felt like being somewhat angsty, and i have a lot of problems with narnia in general, but this is the most popular one, introspective, listen they did Susan dirty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-09
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 09:28:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29931384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BabyGenius/pseuds/BabyGenius
Summary: Bright red lipstick swipes across lips, the paint of battle.Queen Susan the Gentle, they called her. She didn’t mean to leave her people behind. People for whom she had spent hours crafting quiet traps of hospitality to enact on those who thought they could take advantage of young rulers and take over their land.——A character study, because armor isn’t always made of metal or leather, sometimes it’s metaphorical.
Comments: 5
Kudos: 12





	a different kind of armor

**Author's Note:**

> just a short character study. I never finished reading the books, but J don’t need to to know that I have a problem with how Susan was portrayed and how mr. clive staples lewis made her seem in the wrong for trying to protect herself from the undoubted heartache of the place she had grown up. 
> 
> Anyway, enjoy!

Bright red lipstick swipes across lips, the paint of battle.

Queen Susan the Gentle, they called her. She didn’t mean to leave her people behind. People for whom she had spent hours crafting quiet traps of hospitality to enact on those who thought they could take advantage of young rulers and take over their land.

As the years passed by, she hadn’t gone into battle as often. That was for Peter, who fought with a Lion in his heart and fire in his sword. For Edmund, who after all these years still felt he had something to prove and to be the rock for Peter in the whirlwind of battle. For Lucy, the Lioness, whose dagger flew true and who protected Her Own with a fierceness befitting her title of Valiant.

Susan stayed behind, soothing those who had stayed in the Cair with her and overseeing the infirmary that would soon be needed.

This is not to say that Susan _didn’t_ go into battle, just that she did it rarely. When she did, the opposers would scoff and snort in amusement. What use did she the _Gentle_ have in the bloody affair of battle? They all seemed to forget that those who were gentle were not weak, and that to make them snap was to make them truly terrifying.

Her arrows struck hearts true even as she soothed those who were new to battle. She uttered reassurances to the recruits whilst she turned and fired an arrow into someone’s heart.

She had built herself on her Gentleness, on the knowledge that she no longer had to strive to be taken seriously, her heart fluttering nervously as she tried to be what her mother was. She commanded those under her with a calm sense of control. She knew when to use honey-coated words and when to wield them like knives, Edmund at her side with a sharp smile and even sharper words.

She aged finely, growing into her limbs and regal presence. No more was she the child who was terrified of being ignored.

Until she was.

She hadn’t had time to prepare, and maybe that was the worst part of all. The years she had lived were shed until she was in her girlhood body yet again. The world hadn’t aged a day and eventually she was no longer welcome back to the place where she had built herself. Where she had _laid her foundations_.

Again she found herself in the body of a young girl, one no one listened to and dismissed as childish. She realized that she would have to build herself here, and began the process just as she had in Narnia.

Her sister and brothers insisted on worshipping the Lion, saying they would make their way back _eventually_ , but the years passed and Susan knew they wouldn’t. Besides, how could the Lion care when he had stripped her of all she was and barred her from her one true home? When he had forced her to remake herself?

And remake herself she did. No longer did Susan dress for battle in a glittering crown and gown for guests, in chainmail and long skirts with a quiver slung over her back for the battlefield. No. She clad herself in nylons and bright red lippaint, the color of still running blood. She was a beauty, drawing in those she targeted and twisting them the way she wished, making her own spot in society to survive.

Her siblings, her everythings, didn’t understand. They thought she had turned to shallow expressions of beauty to distract herself. What they didn’t realize was that she had adapted to this world’s form of warfare while they were still stuck dreaming of swords and fauns.

Susan was still Gentle in this world, but she used her Gentleness differently, as needs must, and pushed her longing for her true home down into a small lockbox that would never be opened. She could be Gentle in this world, too, and she could be fierce. After all, the two weren’t mutually exclusive, simply parts of a dual-edged sword that she wielded easily.

**Author's Note:**

> Thoughts?


End file.
